'Mr. Alumni' brings togetherness

April 06, 2007|VIRGINIA RANSBOTTOM Tribune Staff Writer

His mother was German, his father Irish. But that didn't keep John Moore from joining Mishawaka's Italian clubs, the DeAmicis and Diloreto. "We have a roundtable where we solve all local and national issues," Moore said. "You can hear the same stories, but they get a little cornier and crazier each time." He's even a member of the Belgian BK Club. Moore doesn't care about ethnicity. He is a people person. And as "Mr. Alumni," he helps bring together an assortment of people under one roof each month at the Mishawaka High School Alumni meeting. The 1948 MHS grad says it's the largest active high school alumni, with an average of 500 people meeting at the Mishawaka FOP Lodge each month. Moore publishes the MHS Alumni monthly newsletter that reaches more than 2,500 members across 50 states and seven foreign countries. His wife, Jean Anne, a 1947 MHS grad, proofreads the newsletters while 15 to 18 alumni assemble around 15,000 pieces of paper. The office is in Moore's basement amidst cartons of copy paper. "Sometimes I have to tell him to come up from his computer because that's where he's been all day," Jean Anne said. Those are the days he wishes another alumni member would step up and relieve him of being the alumni director, consuming 20 hours a week of volunteer work. The day he was mailing out the newsletter, Moore had also donated blood, something he's done since junior high to help out a classmate with yellow jaundice. It was his 185th donation, amounting to about 23 gallons. He gives apheresis donations, where the platelets are taken from the blood and the blood goes back to the donor, a process that takes about two hours. "It's used for children with bone cancer," Moore said. "What better use than for kids?" He was involved in county, state and regional Special Olympics for 20 years, serving as a member of the board of directors for three. "I have a soft spot for Special Olympians," he said. He managed a state championship softball fast pitch team in 1969, a time that attracted up to 4,000 spectators to Twin Branch Park. He's also managed big business, retiring in 1995 as general manager and sales manager of Better Products (Atwood Mobile Products) in Elkhart. Moore is a member of Club 15. "A good group of guys who enjoy bowling and golf and do a lot for charity," he said. As a Korean War veteran, he's also a VFW member and with reluctance, he resigned after 30 years of perfect attendance with the Kiwanis Club. "While the club is very involved in the community, I just had too much on my plate," Moore said. In 2005, he was inducted into the Mishawaka High School Athletic Hall of Fame. "While I had letters in basketball and baseball, it was mainly for bringing people together through the alumni club," Moore said. "Most people think that's all he does," Jean Anne said. "But he's so much more. That's just what takes up most of his time." While Moore hopes someone steps up to the plate to direct the club, he doesn't regret any of the fun he has keeping 2,500 members in contact. What makes it all worth it? "I received a call from a man in California whose wife died," Moore said. "He read that a classmate's husband died in Indianapolis and wanted to contact her since they used to date in school. "In their 70s, they ended up getting married and have had a blast ever since." You can't get people any more together than that. But most of all, his best attributes are being a good husband, father and church man, says Jean Anne.Staff writer Virginia Ransbottom: vransbottom@sbtinfo.com (574) 235-6344